I’ve been doing a bit of research into being a virtual assistant. According to Wikipedia:

A Virtual Assistant (or simply VA), is an independent contractor providing administrative, technical, or sometimes creative assistance to clients–usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices, such as that of a lawyer or realtor. Virtual assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), thus making it a fairly popular (and growing) profession. It is estimated that there are about 5,000-8,000 virtual assistants worldwide. Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and fax machine. Although the occupation gives a degree of independence, work is on a contractual basis, and a long-lasting cooperation is standard. Typically 5 years of administrative experience in an office is expected at such positions as executive assistant, secretary, legal assistant, paralegal, legal secretary, real estate assistant, office manager, etc.

This is basically the work that I do at E. Webscapes. Even though I’m technically the Assistant Project Manager, when Lisa first started looking for someone she referred to them as a virtual assistant. In all honesty, I’d never even heard of a virtual assistant until I read Lisa’s post. I thought that it seemed like something I’d be good at and a great way to earn a little extra money.

However, I have LOVED working at E. Webscapes, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I should look at this whole virtual assistant thing a little more seriously. There’s an intensive training course offered by AssistU - basically it’s a semester long certification. If I were to do this seriously, I would apply to AssistU. But I still don’t know if that’s what I want to do. Don’t really have any resolution on this, it’s just been on my mind, so I thought I’d post it. Thoughts?

One of the biggest issues addressed on the WordPress lists I subscribe to is the lack of a customizable form for the WordPress platform. The only form people really know about is inTouch, and you can’t exactly customize it.

Well, in my quest to redo forms on one of my websites that was hacked, I found a solution!!! The Form Assembly 2.0! It’s a great form that is VERY customizable, and all you have to do is insert the code into a page in WordPress! There’s also a bit of code you insert into the header file of your theme and some files to FTP to your server, but that is only if you need to apply their CSS to your form. If you don’t, then ignore those parts and just insert the code into a page!

There’s a free version that has ads associated with it, but the paid versions are cheap! A great, cheap, customizable form, and I can have as many as I want?! Works for Me!!!!!

Thirteen Firefox Extentions I Can’t Live Without

We’re all switching over to our personal edition number for the Thursday Thirteen, so this is my 22nd TT!! Woo hoo!

1. A9 Toolbar - This is my absolute favorite Firefox extension! It puts a search engine on your toolbar that works just as well as Google, but for using this search engine, Amazon.com will give you a discount of 1.57% on all orders! It’s not a huge discount, but you’ve gotta use a search engine anyways, you might as well get a discount for it! The search engine also has a sidebar that calls up books from Amazon.com that are relevant to your search (though you can close this option if you want, it’s not disruptive).

2. Calculator - This is another excellent extension. I find myself using the calculator all the time on the computer, and this calculator is exactly like the Windows PowerToy calculator. However, instead of having to go Start->Programs->blah blah blah, you just click a button on your toolbar, and it opens the calculator in a new tab! It’s great :-)!

3. SessionSaver - I have used this one so much. I’m one of those people who will have eight or nine tabs open at any given time, and sometimes I want to remember them all, but I don’t really want to add them to my bookmarks, and I know that I’m going to want to see them all at one time. SessionSaver will save all the tabs that you have open under one convenient bookmark-like option in the tools menu!

4. del.icio.us Complete - Do you use del.icio.us? Then you SHOULD be using this extension! Easy to save new sites to your del.icio.us, and easy to open up your del.icio.us to see your bookmarks!

5. Skype Toolbar for Firefox - This makes phone numbers on webpages clickable so that you can call them through Skype! Want to order a pizza, but need to look up the phone number? Go to yellowpages.com or something, and the phone number will be clickable! Free call from your computer! And if you’re not using Skype . . . oh buddy, we need to talk!

6. Adblock (and also Adblock Filterset.G) - Great for filtering out sites and ads that are just junk or spam. Makes for a cleaner browsing experience ;-)!

7. Google Notebook - Want to remember something about a site? Forget something and need to make a note about it? Google Notebook is the way to go, and there is a very handy extension which makes using Google Notebook so easy that you can’t imagine not using it!

8. 1-ClickWeather - Puts your current weather and a forecast down on the status bar of your browser. Really helpful when you’re trying to get dressed in the morning :-)!

9. PDF Download - Tired of viewing PDFs in your browser and accidentally closing them, only to realize you didn’t save them? PDF Download gives you options for viewing PDFs . . . open it? Save it? The choice is yours . . .

10. FireFTP - Simple and free FTP client that opens in a new tab in your browser. Super easy, super efficient, super necessary.

11. Web Developer - A great toolbar for all web developers. View CSS, view source, disable scripts, auto-enter forms, the works! This toolbar is chock full of goodies!

12. Tabbrowser Preferences - Enhances the simple tab features in Firefox.

13. UI Tweaker (Formerly Toolbar Cleanup) - Allows you to change the settings in Firefox to what works the best for you!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Leave me a comment and I’ll give you a shout out!

Thirteen Things about Lindsey! 1. A fun quiz to start with: Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas For you, it’s all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times. What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like? 2. I am completely redoing my site Doodlebug so that it is run on Wordpress and is comepletely validated! 3. A friend of mine asked me to design and set up a blog for him, and he wants to pay me for it! My first paid design job!!!! 4. I just bought a new domain so that I can set up a faith blog. Bookmark www.readingredletters.com - I’ll post on here once it’s ready to go! 5. One of my friends who graduated a couple of years ago is getting married on Saturday, and I’m going to the wedding. This is going to be a little wierd - I don’t feel like I’m old enough for my friends to be getting married, but I guess I am . . . 6. Come to think of it, I’m graduating in 5 months . . . I am getting old . . . 7. I need Gilmore Girls Season 5 and I need it stat! My Netflix says it has a long wait on it . . . granted, it just came out this week, so everyone is renting it, but still, I NEED IT!!!!!! 8. Today we’re going to wrap all of our Christmas presents that we’ve bought so far (which, surprising for us, is most of them). I might be going batty by tonight. 9. Couldn’t possibly be as batty as validating XHTML though. I also validated all the posts on this blog (all but about 4 - they were nightmares, so I’ll come back to them later). 10. STILL haven’t done my Christmas cards. I’ve got all mine addressed, but none are written. And the family Christmas cards? We still haven’t even taken the picture . . . sigh . . . 11. My host (Lil’ Mouse Hosting) just created a great new hosting package specifically for bloggers. WP Installation, 50 MB, 1 GIG bandwidth, 2 databases, 2 FTP accounts, 10 email addresses . . . all for $2 PER MONTH!!!!!! And she’s an amazing host with INCREDIBLE tech support . . . seriously people, hosting for a year is cheaper than most of the domains out there. Who wouldn’t go for that?! She doesn’t have the package listed on her site yet (she just created it last night, LOL), but if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll get you in touch . . . or you can go to her website! 12. I went to the doctor again yesterday (can I tell you how tired I am of being sick?) and I thought they were going to draw blood for a FOURTH time . . . but they wound up not needing too! Yippee!!!!!! (I hate needles). 13. My daddy said that we get to go to Ruth’s Chris sometime before I go back to school. This makes me VERY happy :D!!! Links to Thursday Thirteens I have read! (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) 1. Lisa 2. Leanne 3. Enigma

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants